An Unexpected Alliance
by coolandnice
Summary: Thirteen years have passed since the girl defeated the Labyrinth and took back her baby brother. The Goblin King would do anything to win her favour, whether he chooses to admit it or not. When a child is stolen the unlikely pair must work together to take them back before the world falls down. rating may change later, eventual JxS, no lemon planned as I can't write it well enough
1. The Runaway Jacket

_edit: Just quickly gonna put this out there: I DO NOT OWN LABYRINTH OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS! I wish. Just borrowing them to fulfill my own needs for more Goblin King. All of Labyrinth and the world and characters etc belong to Jim Henson and the other creators of Labyrinth._

An unrelenting beeping sound was what managed to wrench Sarah back to the world of the living. She reached out with a groan and slapped her alarm clock, knocking it to the floor of her bedroom with a satisfying _thud_.

Swinging her legs out of bed, she sat up and stretched before grabbing her diary from her bedside table and flicking to the day's date. Today she had her meeting with her manager about her latest fantasy novel, something she was certainly not looking forward to. Rolling her eyes as she stumbled lazily to the shower, she chastised herself with a reminder that she was very lucky to have Jessica; despite her stern and too-formal attitude she knew exactly what she was doing with Sarah's writings, and the series Sarah had been working on since she was fresh out of high school would be non-existent if it weren't for her. She brushed her teeth as she stepped under the still warming water of the shower; it was just like her to set an alarm as late as possible to spend those precious extra minutes in the comfort of her bed. Once clean, she dried her hair and glanced disinterestedly towards her wardrobe, pondering what would fight the biting cold of November the most effectively.

She settled on a mossy green jumper that was only slightly more warm than it was itchy over her favourite jeans (again) that hadn't been washed in longer than she cared to admit. Fluffy pink socks slipped over her toes, which she wiggled gleefully as she heard a giggle behind her. Whipping around, she saw a shadow scurry in the corner of her eye.

"Quiet? I can hear you, you know, you're not as sneaky as you think," she called, as a small goblin peered out from behind her bed, eyes twinkling with mischief. Quiet, whose name was the result of a misunderstanding of being told to do so by a certain King its entire life, was a smaller than average goblin with a deep love for food, shiny objects, and causing trouble to anyone in close proximity - although the latter wasn't always deliberate. Quiet was a goblin who attracted bad luck like a magnet, and they just so happened to be one of the few that had followed Sarah to the aboveground after she defeated the Labyrinth nearly thirteen years ago. Sarah was grateful for her companions; after moving out of her childhood home, the magic that linked her mirror to the Underground had - for lack of a better word - snapped, and left her without ways of communication with Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus. She missed them greatly, often recreating their likenesses in her stories.

"Lady Sarah will play hide-and-seek?" Quiet enquired hopefully, pit-pattering closer on tiny feet.

"I wish I could, I have that meeting with Jessica today," Sarah sighed wistfully, absentmindedly tying her long brown hair into a ponytail, a hairstyle that had recently become her signature look. A few strands escaped the elastic prison and fluttered down to rest around her face.

"Can Quiet come with Lady?" the goblin's eyes flashed, which should have been clear warning to Sarah. None of her companions were particularly fond of Jessica, and took great delight in pranking her, despite Sarah's half-hearted protests. They explained it away with 'protecting' their Lady, but Sarah knew it was really for selfish want of pandemonium rather than anything honourable.

"I suppose so, but only if you promise to behave," she warned with an accusing point of the finger. "You really upset her last time. She still doesn't know how her furniture ended up on the ceiling. Nor do I for that matter, you still haven't told me how you managed that." Quiet only giggled in response, scampering out of the bedroom to the rest of the small flat that Sarah called home. After quickly putting on a little mascara and chapstick as an afterthought, Sarah followed and grabbed her shoes.

"Looks like rain," she commented under her breath, looking out of the window and reaching for her waterproof jacket. It wasn't there. "Quiet?"

"Lady Sarah?" the Goblin blinked its discomfortingly large eyes with faux ignorance.

"My jacket?" she asked pointedly. "Would you so happen to know where it is?" The goblin shifted, clasping its small claws together and looking towards its feet.

"Quiet doesn't have Lady Sarah's jacket."

"But?" Sarah sighed impatiently. Usually she didn't mind having to pry answers out of her small goblin friends, but today she had a meeting with her scary-but-efficient manager and despite her alarm was close to running late.

"Stopit may have thought Master Toby would need an extra layer for school today." Quiet smiled sweetly at nobody in particular, secretly proud of his brother's caring nature towards the Williams family. With an exaggerated exasperated sigh, Sarah tried to conceal a smirk and put her hands on her hips.

"Well, I suppose Master Toby's protection against the elements is far too just a cause for me to be too irritated." She rolled her eyes teasingly at the grinning goblin in front of her. "Come on then, I doubt we'll be out long enough to get caught in the rain anyway. Let's be off!" Grabbing her keys, she spun around and left the flat, Quiet close at her heels.

***  
"Again? Really?" The Goblin King groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Stopit is sorry, honest, Stopit just wanted to help Master Toby," the goblin explained innocently. "Arglia believes Stopit is helpful to Lady." The last of Sarah's acquired companions finished her explanation, nodding in satisfaction to itself at, in its opinion, a very well thought out and reasonable argument for her brother to not be bogged immediately for stealing Sarah's possessions. Again.

"I really do not have the spare time, or spare magic, to be constantly fixing your brothers' mistakes. Do you realise how long it took for me to de-attach all that furniture from that poor human's ceiling? A good bogging would do them good."

"Arglia could fetch the cloak from Master Toby and return it to Lady Sarah herself?" the goblin spoke up with optimistic anticipation, not noticing the miniscule wince from her King at the mention of the girl's name.

"It's not a cloak, it's a jacket. _Jacket_." Jareth snapped. Arglia was the most intelligent of the traitor goblins that had followed the champion back to the Aboveground, one Jareth was sorry to see go. She often kept the other goblins is check, especially her brothers - two Jareth was certainly not sorry to say farewell to. To be honest, Jareth had tried to remain bitter at the utter betrayal of those three goblins choosing that mortal over him, but to his own disappointment he couldn't help but feel slightly impressed at the way that girl had charmed his subjects. He knew that a fair few more wished to follow as well, but none had the courage. He was still surprised that three did, despite the threat of the Bog of Eternal Stench looming ominously above their heads.

"Lady's jacket could be fetched by Arglia." Two expecting eyes blinked slowly, cheekily. Jareth sighed, waving his leather-clad fingers gracefully towards the goblin as he looked away in dismissal. Arglia disappeared with a small pop, off to steal back the cloak-jacket as subtly as possible.

"Nearly thirteen of their years and I still can't bear to hear that wretched girl's name." Jareth cursed to himself. At first, when that mortal had beaten him at his own game, his own Labyrinth, he had felt nothing but fury. He had practically begged, he thought in disgust, recalling those words he had whined at her within their last moments; _fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave..._ Yet, as the years passed (and time works differently in the Underground, so it had been many years) he was left with a small sense of admiration and not much else. Maybe a pang of jealousy now and again, a fraction of frustration, perhaps. But that was all. He was actually hopeful to meet her again, but unfortunately the right words she had recited to him forbid him so. _You have no power over me._ He wouldn't be able to speak to the child again until she called for him herself. Although, he pondered thoughtfully, not a child anymore. Nearly thirteen Aboveground years had passed, many more in the Underground. Gods, the babe she had wished away would be nearing his teen years himself! The Goblin King chuckled. He would bet anything that the babe was causing havoc, a little mischief-maker if ever there was one, just like he was as a boy. He had seen it in his eyes all that time ago, that similar craving for catastrophe.

Summoning a crystal with a flick of his wrist, Jareth recalled what that goblin had called the fine fellow - Tony, wasn't it? Yes, that sounded right. He focused on the name whilst picturing how he remembered the babe, stripey babygrow and all. Luckily, the power he drew from the Labyrinth knew what he meant as an image of Toby Williams emerged from the fog in the magic orb. He was small for his age, with a mass of dirty blonde curls atop his head, filled to the brim with nervous energy. He was peering curiously into his locker, pulling out a rather feminine looking brown jacket. Jareth couldn't judge the lad though, it's not as though his own clothes conformed to the Aboveground's standards of masculinity after all. As soon as Toby had pulled the garment clear from his locker, he dropped it with a jolt, and together he and the Goblin King watched as the the jacket slid at great speed down the hallway, between student's legs and eventually, to freedom through the front entrance and out into the awaiting rain. Popping the crystal, Jareth couldn't help but release a throaty cackle at Arglia's idea of _subtle_.

***  
Toby blinked a few times after the runaway jacket, but decided to think no more of it until he could ask Sarah about it later. Strange occurrences seemed to follow him everywhere, especially when his sister was involved. She would usually brush away his questions with a knowing smile, or a certain look towards a dark corner of the room - but he hadn't particularly minded the secrecy as it had never really caused him any trouble. Toby had just learned to associate unexplained and mysterious oddities with Sarah. At this point, it was just a part of who she was; a woman in her mid-twenties who still hadn't grown out of fairy tales, surrounded in a bizarre aura of mayhem and hushed giggles that seemed to come from nowhere.

For as long as he could remember, Toby had been extremely close to his older sister. He had grown up with her magical bed-time stories and grand ideas of a parallel world hidden from human knowledge; even after she had moved out Sarah had always made sure she had time for her brother. Toby was always the first to hear her new plans for her book series, and his opinions and advice were held in high regard. His favourite characters were the goblins: small scheming creatures who lived in a bustling town surrounding a castle. Sarah never went into much detail about who lived in the castle, though, and he wasn't completely sure why; he assumed there would be some sort of leader - maybe a bigger, scarier goblin? However, that aspect of Sarah's fantasy world was currently still left to the reader's imagination.

The bell rang and jolted Toby from his daydreams. Slamming his locker shut, he adjusted the straps of his too-heavy backpack and headed to his next class.


	2. Your Biggest Fan

_Again, I don't own Labyrinth or any of the characters, all of that good stuff belongs to Jim Henson and the other creators! Big thanks for anyone who has read so far, please review and let me know what you think if you get a chance. I haven't written literally anything fiction in about 6 years so feedback is greatlyyy appreciated. I have an overarching plan for this one (kinda) so it's all meant to foreshadow and whatnot. However, if you feel it's dragging at all let me know so I can hurry it along a bit._

Sarah came to a skidding halt outside the coffee shop where she was supposed to meet her manager twenty-two minutes earlier. Shoving the door open, she made eye contact with a stern but young looking woman, and pulled the most apologetic face she could before slinking over.

"Sorry Jessica, when I left I was on time, I don't know what happened!" Sarah gushed, dripping rain water all over the floor of the cafe. Jessica handed her a tissue, pointing at Sarah's eyes. Her mascara had run everywhere. With a sigh, Sarah dabbed delicately at her face, attempting to wipe as much of the black gunk off as possible. That was the last time she bothered to put on makeup for anything other than a special event, or rather, any event that boasted free food and drink.

"I'm used to it Sarah, I set off ten minutes late to kill the waiting time. Sit?" Sarah sat gratefully, shoving the sodden tissue into the back pocket of her jeans. What would she do without her manager? She gave Quiet a gentle nudge with her foot after noticing it sticking its tongue out at the woman. Jessica had already ordered their drinks; she sipped at a double shot espresso, and Sarah wrapped her shivering hands around a massive hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows. "I know I tell you this every time, but that's a child's drink." Sarah's only acknowledgement was a satisfied _mm_ sound as she took a big glug of the warm brown liquid, not noticing the froth that had flicked onto her upper lip.

"So what did you want to talk about? Did you get the plan I sent over?"

"I don't think planning an entire new book is a great idea when your last two chapters are late. Have you even started on them yet?" Sarah frowned guiltily, poking a marshmallow below the surface.

"I tried. I told you before though, I don't want to write about a King of the Goblins. It's just not the direction I wanted to take the story in. The focus was meant to be on the creatures living in the world, not a monarchy."

"This is the fourth book, Sarah. There's only so much you can write about dwarves and fairies before you need an actual overarching plot." Jessica tried. This was beginning to get old. There was a call for a deeper understanding of the world Sarah had created.. Although well written and overflowing with imagination, Sarah's stories were just that - stories. They had barely any plot to boast of, and although they were popular for a time for reading to children before bed, the older fan base were getting bored. Quickly. Sarah scowled, all humour quickly vanishing from her face. Quiet noticed her sudden change in demeanor and shrunk behind her leg.

"Well, it's my story. I don't want to write about him and that's that."

"Him? So you've already designed a character?"

"No. That is, not exactly. I've already decided, okay? I'm not writing about a stupid Goblin King!" Sarah snapped, chugging the rest of her drink and standing, almost knocking Quiet over. "I'll finish the chapters, but he won't be in them!" Jessica sighed as she watched Sarah storm out of the cafe, wondering if she had given even a second thought about the pouring rain she was walking back out into.

"Stupid Jessica. Stupid Goblin King." Sarah grumbled, paying no mind to the cool water streaming down her face as she stomped back to her block of flats. She glared down at Quiet. "I bet you loved that."

"Lady Sarah doesn't like King?" Quiet squeaked.

"Of course not!" Sarah exclaimed. "He's arrogant and rude, not to mention a dirty cheat. Do you not remember how he treated me when I ran the Labyrinth?" Quiet cocked its head to one side.

"King doesn't like to lose," it admitted. "But King likes Lady's books. King wonders why King isn't in them."

"The Goblin King reads my books?" Sarah paused her assault on the pavement. Quiet beamed up at her, thrilled to have momentarily calmed her down. "I thought he hated me?"

"King doesn't like to lose." Quiet repeated simply, as means of explanation.

"I suppose it doesn't make a difference how he feels about me or my stories anyway. The fact of the matter is, I don't like him. He kidnapped my brother, after all! So he won't be in my books, whether he reads them or not is no concern to me." Sarah decided, and continued onwards down the road, albeit less aggressively than before. Quiet giggled at its Lady's stubbornness, and wondered to itself whether Jareth had heard Sarah say his title for the first time in nearly ten years.

***  
"Did you hear that?" Jareth exclaimed, jumping to a stand and grinning down upon the goblins in his throne room. "The girl is talking about me!" The goblins tittered in response but soon went back to placing bets on the chicken race that was to be taking place later that day. With a huff, the Goblin King slumped back down into his throne and kicked his legs over one of the armrests. Despite the girl saying his title aloud, it didn't hold the same power as her calling his given name; Jareth could still feel the binding of the right words forbidding him to go to her, or even speak with her.

Lazily he conjured a crystal and ordered it to show him 'the girl'. His magic knew what he meant. She was soaking wet - Jareth made a mental note to bring this up with Arglia later, wasn't she meant to have retrieved the jacket? That annoyingly loud goblin was with her too, twitching after her as she stalked down the street. He hummed to himself, it seemed as though the girl had spoken his title out of anger or annoyance rather than anything else. Despite the right words being so fickle, Jareth still felt hopeful with the way things were playing out. Obviously it had taken nearly ten Aboveground years for the mortal to even speak his title, but it was definitely a step forward. It couldn't be long until she called his given name, or rather, begged to see him! He laughed to himself, a few nearby goblins glanced up worriedly but chose to ignore their King's strange behaviour. He could be dangerous when he was in one of his moods.

It wouldn't hurt to try and speed things up a bit, though. He had once told the girl that forever was not long at all, but whilst this was true, why wait forever when you can get things done and over with? Jareth could be patient, but he didn't like to be. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, before snatching his riding crop out of thin air and smacking a nearby goblin with it to get its attention.

"You, I have a few errands I need running so see to it they get done before the girl gets home." The goblin looked panicked and began to protest; the girl was nearly there already! But one quick look at the Goblin King's face and slowly raising eyebrows quickly changed the poor things mind, and it clamped its lips shut. Jareth smirked and began to drawl orders, deliberately taking his time to make the creature sweat.

"Well?" he prompted when he'd finished. The goblins looked at each other before forcing shrieks of laughter. Jareth rolled his eyes at their insincerity, and thought about how nice it would be to have some intelligent companionship.

***  
Sarah slammed back into her flat with excessive force considering she wasn't as upset as she was half an hour ago. Quiet's revelation of the Goblin King being a big ol' nerd and reading her children's books had actually prised a few giggles from her once she had calmed down a little. She was starving though, her late alarm had caused her to miss breakfast. She went to check the fridge for something to eat, only to be greeted by an uncomfortable looking Arglia, holding something she could have made great use of earlier.

"My jacket!" she laughed. "Thanks, Arglia. Do you guys want something to eat too?" She glanced over her shoulder at Quiet, who had snatched her keys once they had gotten back and was admiring the way the light reflected off of them. Quiet ignored her and Arglia muttered something unintelligible in response, so Sarah shrugged and peered into the fridge. "Empty," she announced, deflated. Was she ever going to get the hang of the whole adult thing?

Turning around and leaning against the fridge, she noticed something behind Arglia, that the small goblin may or may not have been trying to conceal to the best of its ability.

"What's that behind you?" she wondered, walking over and trying to get a better view. It was an expensive looking fruit bowl, made out of a kind of metal that Sarah couldn't recognise with intricate carvings. Where the light caught it there appeared to be glitter, but if she got too close of tried to see the individual specks they would stop shining, like if you looked directly at a star in the night sky. The bowl was almost overflowing with peaches. "Did you get this for me?" Sarah gasped, smiling at the goblin who had done its best to protect the Lady. Arglia grumbled, wanted to speak out but she was under direct orders to not give away the origins of the fruit, or the implications. "You know, I swore never to eat a peach again after what happened, but it's only a piece of fruit. What harm could it be?"

With that, Sarah plucked one of the peaches from the bowl and took a large bite. Time seemed to slow down as she swallowed the sweet flesh. She grimaced but tried to take another bite, but before she could even raise the fruit to her lips, the world shifted and she lost balance, almost falling to the floor.

"Arglia?"

"Oh, what should Arglia do!?" the goblin cried, attempting to pull Sarah to the sofa where she could lie down.

"Everything's dancing," Sarah sighed; she had a vague feeling that she should be scared or at least concerned, but she only felt relaxed, maybe a little tired. Something soft hit the back of her knees and she collapsed backwards onto the sofa just as her eyes fluttered shut.


	3. Foolish Fire

_I wish... I wish... I knew the right words to make Labyrinth mine. But I don't, so that honour goes to the one and only Jim Henson and the other creators of Labyrinth. I don't own anything. This was my favourite chapter to write so far despite it being a bit shorter, so please let me know how you found it if you have the time! lots of love to labyrinth peeps its lit_

It was dark. The only light that illuminated her surroundings were some peculiar, tiny lights that the girl could have mistaken for fireflies if they hadn't been moving in the ethereal manner that no organic being could pull off - it had to be magic. Soft, lush grass licked at her bare feet, so thick it bounced as she took a step forward, barely hinting at the hard dirt underneath. Heavy velvet protested at her legs; the girl glanced down to see a simple floor length dress that she assumed was black for the lack of light.

Before the girl could feel fear for herself being alone in the dark, she heard in the distance soft folk music being sung by a chorus of individuals. It was muffled, as though she were underwater, but it was there. If she squinted she could see a faint glowing orange light, so she decided to head towards that for lack of any better options. There were no stars or moonlight to guide her way, but as she moved towards her goal the tiny glowing orbs flickered towards her and settled in her hair like a circlet, effectively enough lighting her path.

Each step was a story of its own, the greenery beneath her whispered against her skin and told her secrets that she forgot as soon as she heard the next one. Her fingertips brushed the impossibly tall trees as she passed them; older than the earth they grew from, they seemed to part before her to make the journey less burdensome. Odd mushrooms sprouted haphazardly from a few of the trunks; some glowed, some seemed to be breathing, some shuddered occasionally. A couple seemed to move up and down their hosts as if shy of being seen by the strange girl with the will-o'-wisps in her hair.

The entire walk somehow took simultaneously less and more time than expected, but the girl didn't think it strange as she knew things weren't always what they seemed, especially in such places as this one. The soft light from before was in fact the hugest bonfire that towered high above her, its flames stretching desperately to the vast emptiness of the sky. Hundreds of people danced around it, linking arms then breaking free, occasionally throwing a piece of material or ribbon into the greedy fire at the centre of the festivities. They wore curious masks with extended noses and ears; the girl felt an uneasy sense of recognition, but as soon as it came, it was gone again and she was once again at ease.

The dancers laughed loudly. A thrum of conversation was in the air but the girl never managed to catch a word, but it didn't seem important enough to dwell on. She stepped cautiously towards the excitement, she wanted to join in but couldn't help but notice that everyone else already had a partner.

Leather slipped between her fingers; she snapped her head to the left and there he was, her lead for the night. He wore a mask too - she thought it was black like her dress, but when the fire illuminated them she saw it was deep red and her dress winked up at her with a midnight blue eye, teasing her for her mistake. Things weren't always what they seemed in this place.

He tilted his head towards the centre, silently asking her for the dance. Silently she stepped with him, a frown creasing her brow. She was sure she recognised him, but she just couldn't remember. She didn't care enough to think too hard about it. The song changed, they were singing a slower folk song now. It was higher, more airy and ghostly. It wasn't clear were the music was coming from. The girl had initially assumed the dancers were singing but on closer inspection they seemed to be holding numerous conversations - none of their lips were in time. The chatter quieted all of a sudden for seemingly no reason, the singing grew louder and louder.

They came to a standstill where it should have been far too close to the flames, they were close enough to touch but the heat was steady and constant throughout the grove, it didn't seem to matter what their proximity to the fire was. He turned to her and placed his left gloved hand on her waist. She mirrored his actions and placed her hand on his padded shoulder, the gems sewn onto his jacket were rough under her fingers and threatened to scratch if she wasn't careful. He seemed to enjoy her compliance; his mouth cracked into a wide grin, revealing pointed teeth beneath. Her breath caught, but before she could protest he had swept her away. They swung in wide circles. Her dress billowed out, she hadn't realized there was enough material to it for it to do that before, the flames made it gleam. The song was slow but they were fast, her only reassurance was if they slipped the grass would cushion their fall. Faster and faster, round and round, she felt dizzier and dizzier but he didn't stop.

He continued to smirk down at the girl. He tried not to notice the attraction he felt towards her, this was not the time nor place - yet her pale face flushed up at him, and her loose brown waves swung out behind her, and her fingers gripped onto him as if she were terrified to let go, and she blinked so often for no reason, her long eyelashes brushed her cheeks, and her lips were slightly parted, and if it weren't for that blasted mask he wore he could just lean forward and...

The sense of recognition was growing stronger, a heavy weight was on her chest and she felt tired. She went to pull away, scared of this figure in the mask. As soon as he saw her discomfort, the smile disappeared and he let her pull away a minute amount. The corners of his eerily familiar mouth pulled down in a concerned frown, and he briskly walked away from the loudness, gently pulling her behind.

Once in a more secluded area, he silently asked her what was wrong. She didn't answer, just continued to look around. Everything was dancing and she knew it, she knew all of it but just couldn't quite figure out how or why she knew. It was on the tip of her tongue, it was so close.

He tried to comfort her, holding her shoulders steady. When this failed to make a difference, he pulled his mask off so he could look into her eyes. Green met blue.

"Jareth?"

The illusion shattered.


End file.
